Thundersdawn PT7: Alpha Centauri
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: O'Neill finds out commanding a star system isn't all its cracked up to be, when a mine disaster reveals a dark secret from Alpha Centauri's past.
1. O'Neills Domain

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**For the record: I do not own, nor do I claim ownership of characters or concepts from Stargate SG-1.**

This is Number 7 of the Thundersdawn series:

1: Dawn Of Thunder  
2: Thunder Rising  
3: Dauntless  
4: Thundergate  
5: Chocky's Thunder  
6: The Meaning of Command  
7: Alpha Centauri

**Chapter 1: O'Neill's Domain**

O'Neill tapped the _Paladins_ controls with a deft hand, bringing the small craft around in a perfect 180 degree turn, gaining an approving nod from the grizzled RSS instructor in the right seat--. O'Neill just grinned; he had thought this would just be a formality, allowing him after a few minutes work to be able to pilot any RSS small craft as and when he wanted too. His instructor had other ideas, and O'Neill cringed at how arrogant he had been to assume that just because he had a test pilots rating on atmospheric fighters, just because he had occasionally controlled smaller Goa'uld ships, he could handle all the craft the Tau'ri had available to them. Granted, he was one of the better _F-302_ pilots, but that was mainly because he had been piloting them from the start, in fact he had regained his test pilots qualification just so he could try those birds out when they first appeared. His instructor had shown him quite quickly that he knew absolute zilch when it came to flying anything else, and had been frankly aghast at O'Neill's lack of knowledge of the safety systems all the more modern craft were equipped with, and the limitations of the larger craft.

In fact the instructor had grabbed the controls of the _Paladin _back pretty quick the first time O'Neill had tried to fly one, and had blasted him with a long and vivid description of his sanity, not least of which was comments about 'possible structural collapse' involved with the manoeuvre he had tried to pull. Which rated an 'opps' from the Brigadier General.  
Finally however the instructor had determined he was ready and able to fly the _Paladin _again, he had already re-qualified on the other RSS craft but this one the instructor had kept for last deliberately. O'Neill grinned a sardonic smirk as he led the craft in a sharp upward spiral away from Alpha Prime, pulling up and over the massive Goa'uld station where he had his offices, through the old abandoned mothership bay, now stripped except for primary structural members, most of which on the one side glinted brightly in the light of Alpha Centauri's three suns, showing their age, or rather lack off it. Everything in that section had had to be replaced, in fact the whole mothership area had been stripped, the Tau'ri were not going to be building motherships here, no eventually the whole area would be rebuilt to include fighter and MTB bays, small ship construction, training areas, all the additional support services, environmental, medical, research and development, and quarters the future headquarters of the combined RSS and SGC fleets would require. For now though, only the top half of the station was being worked on. With Thor having removed the Asgard derelict and the survivors the engineers had finally been able to start work on that part of the station, structural integrity at the top was good, but in the centuries the station had been abandoned it had suffered many micrometeorite impacts, causing small leaks all over the station, as well as the massive impact which demolished the mothership bay. Of the three _Ha'tak_ bays which Ra had built into this facility, one had only just been vacated by the Asgard so no repairs had been done their yet, the second bay was airtight and safe, and the third… He grinned as he pulled the _Paladin_ in a tight turn across the front of bay threes massive spot lit doors, bay three would be ready for use within a week according to the latest estimates. Already most of the tool-and-die sets the Tau'ri used was in place to enable the bay to produce both the SGC _Prometheus_ class vessels and the RSS _Dauntless_ class, the highly trained construction crews being able to switch between the two tool-and-die sets within eight days, though _Thundersdawn _unsurprisingly held the record, being the only operational capital ship construction facility active yet, at a mere 4 days, with a eight day average. He pulled the _Paladin_ up across the top of the station, carefully avoiding the protrudances of the stations Goa'uld built primary weapons. They were old, outdated even by Goa'uld standards, but as yet he didn't have the resources to update them, or even repair them for that matter. This station for the moment at least, was wholly reliant on its massive shield generators, a priority refit job O'Neill had personally ensured was completed before anything else, and the few fleet elements which were maintained in system at all times. At this point in time that meant _Indefatigitable_, _Blastboat_, and Eagle squadron RSS. The eagles having been bumped up to operational status ahead of schedule after their effective demonstration of why you should never get caught with your trousers round your ankles in a war zone, also known as why the others guys ambushes always suck. Most of the _Al-kesh_ never knew what had hit them. Finally, O'Neill pulled clear of the station, pulling up to that sweet spot a few kilometres above Alpha Primes atmosphere, where, for the next few weeks at least until the planets moved too far apart he would be able to see his whole domain. Alpha Prime and its station spread out below him, the focus of the Tau'ri's efforts within this system, Alpha Beta, a green globe barely visible in the distance, a perfect agri-world, if they ever got around to it and the three suns in their intricate dance across the stars. O'Neill smiled, "God, I love this job"  
The instructor chuckled, wheezing slightly, then tapped him on the shoulder, "Manoeuvring tanks getting low, lets head home Pilot" he lightly stressed the last word.  
"Home it is" O'Neill grinned, he was a pilot again.


	2. Liberty

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 2: _Liberty_**

O'Neill sat back at his desk with a sigh. That flight had been very relaxing, just what he needed to relieve the stress of commanding the primarily RSS presence in the Alpha Centauri system, and now that the instructor had cleared him he would be able to relax that way more often, which was perfect.

A knock at the door distracted O'Neill from his thoughts, "Come In!"  
"Signal from _Thundersdawn_ sir,_ Liberty_ lost her hyperdrive whilst on-route here with the foundry supplies we've been screaming for, they want us to send all three of our hypercapable tugs and retrieve the _Liberty's_ supply pods, whilst they will retrieve the _Liberty_ herself"  
"Where are the tugs now?"  
"They can do it sir, two are due to return to _Thundersdawn_ for maintenance anyway, so we don't have much scheduled for those, number three is involved in basic insystem work which any of the Alpha tugs could cover" the burly Marine corp. Major replied.  
"Fine, cut the orders"   
"Yes, sir" the marine replied, snapping a salute. O'Neill turned to face the large window to his rear as the Marine left, his thoughts on the _Liberty_ and _Persephone_. That was two ships which had suffered hyperdrive failures now… well three actually. _Prometheus_ had had quite a few of them in the first two years she was active, though they dropped off after that. Carter had thought they had caught all the major bugs. It was starting to look like she might have missed at least one. Which would be a problem, because if that was so then as soon as the exact nature of the fault was discovered every single major hull in the combined RSS/SGC fleet would probably have to have their drives refitted to remove the fault, and as yet they didn't have enough available drydocks to do that in hurry. Not with every available dock being stuffed with new hulls under construction. O'Neill frowned, he would have to recommend to Peters at their next meeting that she tried to keep a dock empty at all time for emergencies. She probably had thought of that already but with so much pressure for new construction it would have been easy for her to dismiss the thought. With recent events, she might be amenable to a change of heart, he hoped so anyway. If the fleet was caught with a major engineering issue and no capability to deal with it… The scene from Admiral Thompson's office almost three years ago now filled O'Neill's mind, Thompson had told him all this but at the time O'Neill could honestly say it hadn't sunk in. They had just two operational _Prometheus_ class vessels at the time, and he just hadn't seen the need for all the infrastructure the Admiral was advocating, not with just two ships. But the Admiral had been right, and he had proven it with the rate at which the damaged ships had been repaired in the past, and the increased rate of construction. He would have to send the Admiral an apology, some day. But for now… For now he had paperwork to deal with, an entire solar system didn't run by itself after all. 


	3. Foundry Supplies

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 3: Foundry Supplies**

O'Neill placed his head in his hands, honesty not believing what he was being told. This was stupid to a monumental degree, somebody arranges for the thousand tons worth of foundry equipment they desperately needed to get here, only to have it stuck within a few kilometres of its destination.

"What do you mean we can't take it down to the surface?" O'Neill asked a threatening edge to his voice.  
"It's two heavy for the _Alphaheads_ to de-orbit with sir, well" Marine Major Franco amended, "they could certainly de-orbit with it, they just wouldn't survive the experience. And we can't break the equipment down more than it already has been"  
"Fine, for the moment store it. And while you're at it send a priority request to _Thundersdawn_ for the lone of a Ha'tak. They have a hold big enough and can de-orbit safely with that much weight."  
"Still might need to take each cargo pod down individually sir" Franco added.  
"Yes, but it'll get down to the planets surface safely, where are the _Ha'tak's_ anyway?" O'Neill wondered.  
"Last I heard, _Del Shakka Mel_ was on a joint mission with the Tok'ra, and _Valour's Hour_ was on an Intel run, they could be a while sir"  
O'Neill cursed, they needed those supplies planetside! And fast at that.  
"Thanks Franco" O'Neill replied, dismissing the Marine. He sighed again once the marine had left; this was so typical where bureaucracy was concerned. Several of the planetside mines were online, and their production rate was slowly building up to acceptable levels. But without an operational foundry to purify the ores, turn them into the metals they so desperately needed, the ores were going unused, forming massive piles that were prone to collapse, which was hardly useful. The foundry should have been coming online as the mines did, but the paper pushers had said there was no need to fork out for foundry equipment whilst the mines were non-operational. Even worse, the very same paper pushers were demanding answers from him as to why the ores were building up, instead of being refined. They were acting like it was all his fault, when in truth it was theirs. Paper pushers really made him want to scream sometimes. A wry grin said they tried to block a _Ha'tak_ being sent to assist him, just because he wasn't co-operating and taking all the blame like they wanted him too. He wouldn't put it past them.  
He flicked the intercom, "Major Franco, copy that request direct to Captain Peters please"  
It would be interesting to see how much of a delay there was between the request getting to Peters directly, and going through the paper pushers that detested him so much. 

****


	4. NID

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 4: NID**

When the first words O'Neill heard at the morning briefing were NID, he knew he was about to have a bad day. He did not like the NID at all; they were treacherous corrupt scumbags, and a disgrace to the human race in his opinion. Even now, they still held a lot of behind the scenes power, and that made them dangerous.

"At 0200 Zulu time this morning a _Lancer_ IS arrived with a courier pouch, it seems _Thundersdawn _managed to successfully capture an NID asteroid facility with its computers intact" O'Neill smiled a smug grin, another NID operation taken down and a major intelligence coup at the same time, maybe this wouldn't be too bad. "I wouldn't start smiling just yet; they managed to grab a list of everyone who had passed through the NID base in the last month, four names flagged" Franco passed a small slip of paper across to O'Neill, who read it with widening eyes;  
"Damm! I know them, they seemed like good sorts" O'Neill paused for a moment, "Have security run surveillance, see if we can nab any other rats"  
"Yes, Sir!" saluting, Major Franco left the room, leaving O'Neill with his thoughts. NID, perfect. Over the years that group had caused him almost as many headaches as the Goa'uld themselves, with the kidnapping, ship napping, hell basenapping they seemed so fond of. Still, after having worked with the RSS for several years now, he knew that the British Ambassador would have got one hell of a telling off if he had actually agreed to Kinsley and his NID goons assuming command of the SGC during disclosure. The NID came so close to utterly destroying Earth's chances to gain allies, hell, Earths chance to survive the approaching storm that day. Without doubt, they would have quickly pissed someone off like the Nox or the Tollan pretty quck, and that would have been the end of it. Earth would not stand a chance against their vastly superior technologies. He was just very glad that Thor had gotten his message in time; it was a pretty close thing. O'Neill sighed, as he pushed thoughts of the NID to the back of his mind. At least the NID were hurting now, but he had work to do.


	5. Fire Below

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 5: Fire Below**

Aluminium Mine, Alpha Prime

Mining Engineer Tarva Thomason walked slowly cautiously down the tunnel, heading reluctantly towards the main seam of Bauxite, Aluminium Ore. She had been a mining engineer for seven years and, much like veteran soldiers claiming they could feel the eyes of the sniper that was about to fire on them, Thomason had developed a sixth sense for trouble. Today felt like an explosion, which was not of the good.

Luckily, the topside monitor, a burly mining engineer by the name of Felix Herons had not even blinked when she said she felt trouble was coming with the mine, he had just put his week old copy of the Times newspaper down, called in another engineer to help monitor the stations and began a full diagnostic of the whole mine, sensor sweeps, system checks the works. Working in a mine you quickly figured out who had a good sense of danger, and if they said something felt off you had damn better listen!  
But nothing had been found by the time the extra engineer arrived, and so for the moment the mine stayed open, just with an extra engineer monitoring. That had been the request of the engineers when they signed their contracts, if one of them sensed trouble, an extra engineer would help monitor the mine for the next 48 hours. There hadn't been much of an argument, unlike big corporations out only for money, the RSS was a military organisation who wanted their people keep alive, and they were more than familiar with the remarkable ability to sense danger, many of the older veteran hands in any military organisation displayed it to some extent. Tarva stopped, and stepped back to inspect the last roof support she had passed, something having caught her experienced eyes. She looked closely at the hefty wooden support the mines used, not metal because metal could spark and sparks in a mine were often a bad thing, and they didn't have the dedicated mine rescue teams and equipment available to them that earthside mines did, yet anyway, and she cursed, reaching for her radio. "Felix, this is Tarva, Joist 1M-R-259, schedule for immediate replacement, joist is compromised, looks like it rotten inside"  
"Another one? Right, added it to the log, and I'll write up a request for the Bio boys to have a look at the wood supply, too many are coming in rotten for it to be just chance"  
"Thinking a bug, Felix?"  
"Quite possibly, Tarva"  
"Copy that, Tarva out" Tarva turned away from the joist and resumed her slow stroll down to the mine, stopping every now and then to inspect a joist, emergency supply cabinet or the rails, looking for problems, but finding few. This was a new mine and the miners and engineers the RSS had employed, and to a lesser extent to SGC were all top notch, hard workers, most of whom had been pulled from old British miming communities, devastated by the closing of so many mines. "Tarva, this is Hywdd at lower 4, we just had one hell of a bumper down here, can you come ASAP for inspection run?"  
"This is Dafydd, Lower 1, ditto you're bumping"  
Bumping all the way from lower 1 to 4? That was one hell of a bump. Tarva flicked her radio on, "Lower 2, lower 3, I assume you felt that too?"  
"Lower 2, hell yeah, we're abandoning here, several joists have shifted and the dust is hellacious, wherever those strata shifted, I'm willing to bet it was right over us"  
"Copy that lower 2, lower 3?"  
"Lower 3, we felt it, not as bad as 2 but we're replacing joists in this section, and too many of the old ones just shifted or failed. We're abandoning"  
"Copy" Tarvi flicked the radio off, used several words that would have her mother trying to use carbolic soup on her mouth if she used them in her presence, and switched to the control circuit. "Felix, this is Tarva, we have a situation, lower 2, lower 3 are abandoning and all lowers report heavy to dangerous levels of bumping, you copy?"  
"Tarva, seismological picked up your bumping, registered as fairly standard bumping, just a layer of strata shifting due to the ore being removed"  
"Yeah, well it must have been one hell of a shift to cause 2 and 3 to abandon..."Tarvi trailed off. "Tarvi, you okay?" Felix's concerned voice came over the radio a second later.  
"Check Air! Main access Tunnel" Tarvi spat into the radio, a pit of fear solidifying in her stomach.  
"Checking… oh shit! Firedamp in main access, building up fast, hit a manhole Tarvi, now!"  
Tarvi jumped with a curse into the hardened bunker used for manholes on Alpha Prime just as the baring sirens of the automatic alarm filled the air. 

Note:   
Bumper. Loud thuds, which could shake a whole underground district, believed to be caused by the above strata settling after the removal of the coal/ore. More frequently heard at night.  
Manhole. Small recesses driven into the sides of the headings at regular intervals where men could gain safety as drams past by, or when shot firing was taking place.  
Firedamp. Explosive mixture of gases, usually only dangerous if allowed to build up, or if released suddenly into the mine from a gas pocket in the ore.


	6. Explosion

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 6: Explosion**

Felix watched with worried eyes as manholes across the mine suddenly registered occupancy, the miners all taking the sensible option and diving for safety as soon as the words 'firedamp' were heard over their radios. At least the mines on Alpha Prime had the best manholes, each being a fully contained armoured box, with some food, water, medical supplies, armoured landline to the surface, and chemical toilets. Enough to ensure anyone unlucky enough to need to use them could survive if needs be for up to a week with rationing, that is assuming all the supplies were in place. Felix dismissed that thought, on Earth that would be a worry, but here only the best and most sensible were employed, and they knew these manholes were their best hope for survival if worst came to worst. So far, nothing had ever been reported missing from any of the manholes in any of the inspections so far.

A piercing whistle broke into Felix's thoughts, he glanced to check the recorder, used to record everything that happened in the control room once a potential emergency situation was discovered was on, then spoke loudly into the room. "Master Alarm, Alpha Prime Aluminium mine one, 0300 Zulu time", he turned and nodded to the other engineer, and flicked the master alarm button, causing the master alarm to cut off, its existence acknowledged. Angharad Gwyn, the youngest mining engineer on Alpha Prime reached over, and with shaking hands removed the cover off the big red emergency button on her console. This was her first real emergency; she had been called in to help monitor the mine, so she had known something was up but all she had had to deal with so far had been broken bones, or minor collapses, not a full blown emergency such as this! She gritted her teeth, and pushed the button, instantly the massive sirens above the complex began an almighty wailing, announcing to the small community below that there was trouble at the mine. "Sealing all blast doors in main access, and switching ventilation to nitrogen tanks"  
Angharad frowned, "there isn't enough nitrogen in the tanks to flood the area, to force the Oxygen out yet is there?"  
"No, but it will get us…" the master alarm cut him off, and then a muffled rumble was felt throughout the room.  
They glanced at each other, both blanching as they realised exactly what that meant.  
"Master Alarm associated with low level surface rumble, 0301 Zulu" Felix forced out, flicking through his monitor screens. 

Tau'ri Controlled Goa'uld Facility, callsign _Ravenbright,_ Orbit of Alpha Prime

"…and here is main control, as you can see ladies and gentlemen, this area is entirely Tau'ri technology based, the original Goa'uld masters feeling no need for such a facility." O'Neill smiled a bored smile as he led his 'guests' through the room.

He had never liked having to show dignitaries around, luckily with his mainly special forces background he had largely avoided it so far, but now as commander of _Ravenbright_ it was an unavoidable chore. Luckily, most of the people he had to lead around had half a brain on their shoulders, the new head of the Senate Appropriations committee was here in this batch, and he already seemed to be considering how to boast the budget available to the SGC. Definitely an improvement over Senator Kinsley. Sharp movement out of the corner of his eye caused O'Neill to turn around as the brown haired lieutenant communications sat ramrod straight in his chair with a jerk.  
"Lieutenant?" O'Neill asked, moving across to the comm. station, Senator Pitt following.  
"Sir, the aluminium mine planetside appears to have activated its disaster beacon, attempting to confirm… We have Mining Engineer Angharad Gwyn online sir"  
"Punch it up" "General O'Neill, this is Angharad Gwyn at Alpha Prime Aluminium mine one, we are declaring an emergency"  
"Copy" O'Neill turned from the station, "clear command, all non-station personnel are to be escorted from the room, set condition 2 throughout the station, Lieutenant Hutchinson, alert the _Indefatigable _and _Blastboat_, and prep a signal for Thundersdawn, comms, get your support up here know, as soon as they arrive you are to cover communication with the mine and any rescue personnel only, copy?"  
"Aye sir" "Gwyn" O'Neill said turning back to the monitor, "what is going on down there?"  
"We had a major bumper reported at approximately 0258 Zulu time, at which point Levels lower 2 and 3 had to be abandoned. However before the evacuating miners could get to the main access tunnel, firedamp was reported and at 0301 Zulu the main access way was collapsed by an explosion, we now have 249 people trapped in the lower tunnels, plus the chief engineer is trapped in a manhole in the main access way, we have lost contact with her, but not with anyone else yet…" _"Master Alarm 0307 Zulu, Angharad run a diagnostic on the main data relay, either the lines corrupt or we have a fire now as well"_ O'Neill cursed as Angharad left the range of the pick-up, obviously going to her station, this was bad. This was very very bad.


	7. Disaster

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

Chapter 7: Disaster

Tarvi cursed, her arms wrapping around her body as the manhole shook again, the rumble of a collapsing tunnel reaching her ears, muted by the thickness of the concrete walls and heavy iron airlocks of the manhole. It seemed she was trapped and… she glanced at the computer in the corner, its display clearly saying [CONNECTION LOST] beneath the heavy plastic cover, and to the backup radio and phone in the corner, no connection lights also showing. It appeared she had lost contact with the surface, perfect.

She really should have stayed in bed this morning. She paused in her thoughts, what caused this in the first place she wondered, she knew that occasionally bumpers had caused mines to be temporarily abandoned whilst supports were replaced, but never anything this serious before! Two levels compromised, the main access way blocked by a firedamp explosion… she really needed to arrange another full sensor sweep once this was over. The strata should not have collapsed to that extent. Unless there was tunnels above the previous scans had missed. It would explain the surprisingly low ore concentrations above; it would also mean the strata had already been compromised. It needed to be checked, otherwise the entire mine was at risk of total collapse as the yet unconfirmed upper levels collapsed on the lower. 

Angharad didn't even glance up as frantically running engineers sped into the room, taking positions at secondary stations. She and Felix were in charge when the master alarm occurred, and so she and Felix would have overall command in the absence of the chief engineer, trapped as she was by the explosion. It wasn't the way earthside mines did it, but it was the way it was done here.

She was checking the incomplete secondary access tunnel through the diagnostics and basic sensors for problems; so far nothing… she nodded. It looked as if the secondary was intact. She turned in her chair,  
"Ellis! Alyssa! Tobias! Get a team together, and check the secondary tunnel out. Be prepared to finish it in double quick time, we might have to use it to get the bulk of the trapped survivors out, got it?" The engineers nodded, and charged from the room, heading towards the miners building, where the showers, the safety equipment, the rest rooms were, and where more importantly, the miners would gather in an emergency. "Angharad! Felix!" a voice shouted over the organised chaos of the control room, "signal from O'Neill, he's closed the other mines down for the moment, we're to requisition whatever and whoever we need from the other mines, he's also got all the _Paladins, Alphaheads,_ and _shunters_ on alert and awaiting our signal"  
"Thanks Roberts, we might need it" Felix called out, and then turned to a group of engineers, ordering them to check all the ventilation tunnels, "that should get the noise down here a bit, and maybe we will be able to widen one enough to get access" "Hey, Felix, check out the gas readings coming off main ventilation"  
"Extremely high carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide… lots of nitrogen/oxygen compounds… sulphur dioxide… shit" Felix said, flatly, "this reads like a coal fire"   
"Where did we pick coal up?" Angharad said reaching for the mine's blue prints, "close to lower 2 wasn't it?"  
"Right by where the worst bumping was reported, I think we need to ask O'Neill for a full sensor sweep, like now" Felix stated, a grim tone in his voice.  
"Roberts, get on that" Felix added at Angharad's nod. "Fans have completely spun down now, but there's still one hell of a draw off main ventilation, lot of air being pulled in, which means a fire. Lovely. And for the coal seam to be exposed, lower 2 must be pretty much gone. What's temperature in the manholes?"  
Felix flicked the computer over to another display; those we still have contact with are hovering at 320, about normal for this depth, but that'll change, the heat will start to pass through the iron airlocks of the manholes soon enough" "We need to block the oxygen supply… we could use the Alphaheads, have them transport the other mines nitrogen tanks here and try for an oxygen purge. We should get at least 5 minutes worth of liquid nitrogen blowing into the tunnels then, no oxygen to allow the fire to burn, and it being liquid nitrogen we're using, should cool the source of the fire down, reduce the likelihood of the fire restarting from smoulder" Felix nodded, and then shouted "Roberts!"  
"On it, I'll get a team rigging up the extra connections too"  
"Thanks Roberts"


	8. Reaction

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 8: Reaction**

_Thundersdawn_

Commodore Peters sat in her chair, able to relax at last. For once she was slightly ahead with her paperwork, her weekly inspection was complete, the station was now running at full capacity, and there were nothing that required her immediate attention, so she could relax. It felt strange, like her body was no longer used to being able to rest, to have a break every now and again. She knew there wasn't a hope in hell's chance of it lasting, but for the moment she would enjoy it as much as she could.

A knock at the door sounded, and Peters put her cup of Earl Grey down on the desk, calling out "Enter!" as she did so.  
"Commodore, we just received word, there's been an accident at the Alpha Prime mines, at least 200 people are trapped under ground"  
"Bugger, all right put all the SAR teams on full alert, and get _Shunters_ and _Paladins_ ready to shit them to Alpha if needed"  
"Aye Commodore" As the messenger turned to leave his PDA bleeped its receipt of another message, downloading from the master communications server. "Commodore, message from General O'Neill, he's requesting a second capital ship for a triangulated scan of the mines, the mine engineers are desperate for a more accurate sweep, something about collapsing strata?"  
"Collapsing strata?? Bloody hell… that'll pancake the whole mine. Refresh my memory, what ships are available?" Peters said, reaching for her tea. "O'Neill has _Indefatigable _and _Blastboat,_ but _Blastboat_ doesn't have the sensor capability for a deep scan. We have two ships with the sensor capability insystem, _Persephone_ and _Liberty_ but neither is in any state to leave the system, closest ship… _Independence_, she's outward bound checking on rumours of a fugitive fleet heading in from the far end of the spiral arm, she should still be in range for another hour" "Cut orders for _Independence_, have her report to Alpha, assist with rescue operations then return to her mission, if the SGC complains, and I really don't think Hammond will, remind him it's a definite rescue mission, not a possible"  
"Aye, Commodore" "And tell them to step on it, they don't have unlimited air down in the mines" she shouted after his retreating back.  
"Damn" she swore softly, "if it's not a Goa'uld invasion or the NID, then it's a major bloody accident! What does it take to get some peace around here?" 

Alpha Centauri

With a flash of light, _Independence_ appeared in space, diving at full speed towards Alpha prime and the damaged mining complex below, radios messages frantically passing between her and Indefatigable as they tried to co-ordinate the scan of the mining complex.   
Soon,_ Independence _arrived in orbit, and they were able to start the triangulated scan, the results bouncing down to the mining facility below.

"Oh shit!!" was the simultaneous exclamation from Tarvi and Felix as the data started feeding through.  
Angharad turned around to Roberts, and frantically shouted, "get a signal to Alyssa at the secondary access tunnel, stop drilling, now!"  
"There's another power source… Christ that's a field generator of some sort… multiple Naquadah point sources… hellacious big cavern… Christ we're right on top of it. This whole area is unstable, could collapse at any time, I'm surprised it hasn't already, why didn't this show up on the initial scan?"  
"Indy says there's a modified cloak interfering with the scans… just what was Ra up to here?"


	9. Digging, Digging and Digging!

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 9: Digging, digging and… Digging!**

Alpha Prime: Entering Unidentified cavern

Felix cursed as another _Paladin_ passed over the heads of his team, almost blowing him off his feet, despite the heavy load he was carrying. The whole area was being evacuated; even some of the heavier equipment was having to be moved to reduce the load on the thin weakened cavern roof. And he and his team were expected to just calmly drop into a cavern whose roof could drop on them at any time, 'just bloody perfect' he thought.

"Right" he turned as they finally reached the burnt-out remnants of a smoke flare that marked their objective, "we've got 3 meters to shovel down, so drop your stuff, preferably on the solid side on this flare, and grab your shovels 'cos we're going digging" "3 meters?!?" Captain Brown RSG-1 cursed, "kind of the General to leave that minor detail out of the briefing"  
"Cut the sarcasm, Brown. Grab my pack and dump it self, I'll start marking where we need to dig" Felix replied. "Aye sir" Brown replied, grabbing the pack off Felix's back, which was heavy enough to make him, a seasoned EOD man curse, and began striding towards the 'safe' area, beyond the cavern as per orders. Felix might not be part of the military chain of command but he was the expert as far as breeching the cavern was concerned, and for that matter breeching it safely, and so his orders would not be questioned… unless a military situation cropped up. And Felix had chosen this location for the insertion, on the edge of the cavern where the cavern roof was unusually thin, but supported by the thick rock just a meter or two to the left, and the whole cavern roof in this area being more stable than most according to the sensor sweeps, making it the perfect place to insert into the cavern. The team, Mining Engineer Felix, Miners Evans, Dafyis and Williston, and RSG-1 began the slow laborious task of shovelling into the cavern below, pausing every hour to shore up the sides of their shaft, all the while cursing, and wishing that mechanical diggers could be used safely, without fear of collapsing the already fragile cavern roof. "Just for the record, if this cavern is supposed to be so fragile, how come you were able to sink not one but two shafts right into its centre, not only not noticing how fragile the area was but without dropping into the cavern itself" Major Tobias asked, wiping the sweat from her face. "Two things, first we dropped the first shaft right into the middle of a massive support column right in the centre of the cavern, and so never noticed any weakness or any cavern, and that's also part of the reason why the cavern is so fragile, we compromised its main support column. The second, incomplete shaft skirted the edge of the column all the time, and that is why it was abandoned, it was digging into noticeably weak material" Felix rose up, resting his arms on his hovel for a minute whilst he ran his eyes around the shaft they were digging, checking for any potential safety problems. He nodded, satisfied, and turned to Tobias, "we could have gone into the cavern that away, except that latest bumper 3 hours ago triggered the collapse of that shaft. And the main shaft is already gone, so we get to investigate the cavern itself whilst Angharad leads a rescue team in through the main ventilation, which sits just five meters outside the cavern, luckily" Felix glanced at the cavern walls again, "We're roughly two and a half meters down now, we'll need to start standing on the scaffolding, the floor won't be strong enough to hold us much longer" "Joy" Brown dripped heavy irony into his voice as the team dropped their shovels, and started adding the digging platform to the scaffolding that was keeping the surrounding mud and dirt from refilling their hole.


	10. Breeching The Cavern

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 10: Breeching the Cavern**

RSG-1 watched with eager eyes as the miners dug the last few feet into the cavern. Felix had chucked them out at the two and a half meter mark to conserve their strength. If any hostiles were in the cavern, they would need it. So now they waited, eagerly for the miners to finish their work. Then with a clatter of falling rock, but no sound of rock hitting bottom, the bottom fell out of the shaft, the rock and earth falling down into the cavern below. The miners breathed a sign of relief, their work largely done as they walked further back, away from the edge of the scaffolding, hanging above the cavern below. They were in, now it was the Royal StarGate Teams turn to lead the show.

"RSG-1 calling Mine control, cavern breeched. Get the probes out here ASAP please" Tobias casually flicked her radio off, and waited.  
"Copy RSG-1, about time, the _Alphahead_ has been ready for three hours now"   
"Next time we'll get you to do the digging shall we Control" Tobias snapped, annoyed. The miners shared amused looks, "sounds like its Ravens shift on the radio" Dayfies commented, "acts like a total A-hole, but he's always there if you need him"  
"Right, well you guys take Five hours, well set up the probes for the initial survey, and join you in about an hour"  
The miners nodded, and wearily trudged off for the tents as RSG-1 waited for the slowly approaching _Alphahead_ and its precious cargo of probes and sensors. 

Williams rose his glasses to his face as one of the small flitting specks to the north broke off from the rest, and began growing, filling out into the lines of an _Alphahead_, with a bulky underslung load.  
He turned his head to the resting RSG-1 team-members "Probes are here"

Groaning, they rose to their feet as the _Alphahead _slowed, finally coming to a stop right above the breech into the cavern, its engines whining with the strain of hovering in place. The first probe was lowered as the team, joined once again by the miners turned to their laptops and began monitoring the slow descent of the sensor pod into the cavern. "Can we pause, and take a look at the cavern side a moment?" Felix asked.  
Nodding, Pickstock tapped at his laptop, the probe image quickly slowing and turning to face the cavern wall.  
Felix whistled, "Artificial, that wall is way too flat and level to be a natural formation"  
"You sure?" Pirate asked, worried.  
"Hell yeah, there is no way that is natural"  
"Hey Felix, check out how shiny the wall is? Is that glass?"  
Felix half turned at the wondering tone in Tobias's voice, then turned back to the laptop as the words hit home. "Could easily be, it's reflective enough, but it's not consistent. Its almost as if they slapped wet glass levelly against the whole wall and then hit it with an intense heat burst, melting the sand into glass instantly" Pickstock commented, running the complex sensors suite on the probe over the wall, "yup, high infra-red absorbance too, though again not consistent. It reads like low quality glass"  
"Drop the probe" Tobias ordered, as the investigation of the wall started to run on. They had much more to investigate before they could enter.


	11. In The Mine

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 11: In the mine**

Angharad cursed at the heat still eking from the ventilation tunnel walls as they dropped down the narrow passage to the mines below, the mines had been nitrogen purged, the fire did appear to be out, for the moment at least. And the extreme cold of the liquid nitrogen should have reduced greatly the chances of the fire restarting from the burning embers of the original fire. But they had bigger worries then that, whilst they were in the ventilation shaft the airflow had to be turned down, as they almost completely plugged the shaft as they moved down it, and becoming the cork in the shafts champagne bottle was not their idea of fun.

Which was a problem, as it allowed firedamp and other dangerous gases to build up. Already the surviving sensors were recording increased levels of the poisonous carbon monoxide gas, the explosive firedamp and the radioactive radon gas. So they were double timing it, hurrying down the shaft as fast as safety allowed, to allow control to turn the fans back on as soon as possible. With a yelp, Angharad felt her feet leave the secure walls of the shaft and swing into empty space. Quickly, she pulled her feet up, trying to regain contact with the walls; instead she found an edge, as the walls of the shaft disappeared into the ceiling of the room below. She was in the mine itself at last. Quickly, she dropped the final few feet, and unclipped from the rappel line, moving away to the sides of the room, away from rappelling bodies dropping out of the shaft. She flicked her helmet light across the room, noting quickly the copious amounts of dust that covered every surface before reaching for her pocket GC (Gas Chromatograph). All gases within acceptable limits, they could base here with no problems.  
Behind her, the rest of the twenty-person team dropped quickly into the room, each one carefully manoeuvring a bulky bag of equipment behind them. The very instant the last person had dropped into the room, the airflow picked up, quickly developing into a hefty breeze that sent loose papers fluttering up the shaft to the surface as the fans above were spun up to the fastest they would go. "All right, Hodges, Henderson, Gwyn, you're with me. Everyone else, start emptying the manholes and get the miners shifting up to the surface through the ventilation shafts. Remember to leave time between loads to allow the fans to reduce the firedamp build up and keep an eye on your gas readings. We're going after Tarva" 

Tarva cursed as she looked again at the unmoving bulk of the airlock, and reached again for the water canister. She dropped her hand with another curse. Hot as she was, she didn't know how long she would be down here, she would have to ration the water, make it last longer. How long had she been down here again? She glanced at her watch, 12:34 Tuesday, it had been 11:32 Monday when she had entered the mine according the digital she had been issued with, modified to Alpha Primes 23½ hour day. A day, she had been here a day now. This was not of the good, she was getting stir crazy already, and if her guess were correct it would be at least another two days before she could be dug out.

Perfect, just perfect. And that was assuming she would be found in the first place, it wasn't outside of the realms of probability that she would never be dug out. It happened all too often during mine accidents, the rescuers would try there best but it would take too long, and they would be forced to give off, any survivors reluctantly written off… stop that thought right there, Tarvi told herself, you don't want to get yourself depressed now do you? Because this is absolutely the worst place to lose it. 

Angharad cursed as she saw the mass of fallen rock and rubble blocking the mineshaft, they were 60 meters from the manhole and they knew the cave in extended right to the lift the miners would normally use to enter the mines, and send ore out. 60 meters to slowly carefully dig out by hand to avoid sparks and very carefully to avoid another collapse, reinforcing all the way, this was going to be… fun, really.

"Right, you all know what to do, and remember our Chief Engineer is down their somewhere so be damn careful, lets move it!"


	12. Bad News and Arrivals

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 12: Bad News, and Arrivals **

General O'Neill was not having a good day. He had been woken early to the sound of his second in command knocking on his door, and announcing that surface travel on Alpha Prime had been suspended due to a Grade 'A' Biohazard Alert issued by RSG-1, it seems they had found Ra's dirty laundry, a nice little Biological Warfare Laboratory which just happened to have been compromised to the point where a leak wasn't just possible, it was likely.

Not only that, but the daily fleet report had just landed on his desk, and it listed RSS _Devonshire, _the batch 2 _Dauntless _prototype __as MIA. They had lost another very valuable warship, and more of their dwindling supply of qualified _and _cleared personnel. They now had just seven fully operational warships, and five of those were known to have as yet unresolved issues with their hyper drives.

Worse still, the latest report from the Tok'ra had come in. It seemed Maktenos and Anubis had swallowed the last of the system lords up, and were now looking for other places to gain forces and ships. And while there many places humans could be grabbed for use as ground forces, to add to the numbers of the Jaffa, places with ships and construction facilities could be counted on one hand, and the Tau'ri controlled two of them, as well as having some Asgard technologies, plus the surviving Tollan, both of which Maktenos and Anubis would love to get their hands on. The fact that it would involve wiping out their hated enemies the Tau'ri at the same time was just an added bonus.

The few Tok'ra who survived amongst Maktenos's and Anubis's forces could only provide one explanation why Earth had not been wiped out by either force yet. Earth had a strong enough Navy that diverting enough forces to wipe it out would leave the one vulnerable to attack by the other, so Maktenos and Anubis were racing frantically to build up forces and gain the advantage.

So far neither side had the advantage, luckily. Anubis had better ships and technology that was certain, but there wasn't as large a gulf technology wise between Maktenos and Anubis as there was between Anubis and the now defunct System Lords, but Maktenos had more ships, enough to compensate for Anubis's better technology. How long the status quo would last was uncertain, the Tok'ra had heard rumours that Maktenos had 'acquired' one of Anubis's ships, and was backward engineering it. Already they were seeing circumstantial evidence of this as upgrades were ordered for all Maktenos's ships, upgrades that looked very similar to Anubis's Ancient inspired technologies.

Anubis on the other hand was retiring the _Udajeets _as useless, instead he was introducing a new fighter which the Tok'ra had as yet seen only once, and it was nasty. Slightly larger than an _Udajeet, _it was improved weapons, and a hyperdrive for definite, and was rumoured to not only carry missile armament, a rarity for the Goa'ulds, but be shielded as well.

The war was polarizing, the system lords were gone and now the Tau'ri were fighting for freedom and survival, whilst Maktenos and Anubis fought for domination. As yet, nobody had enough of an advantage to begin an assault of any kind against the other, so they just nibbled, and frantically built up their forces.

He sighed, his face lined and weary as he reached for the intercom,

"Yes?"

"General, the team from the SGC are here"

"Send them in"

O'Neill looked to the door as it opened, them smiled as Colonel Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and Doctor Frasier filed into his room.

"Guys! Good to see you!" O'Neill rose from his creaky leather seat with a grin.

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods anyways?" O'Neill asked, as they relaxed with a hot coffee each.

Fraiser commented wryly, "I got a message about a Goa'uld bio-warfare lab, and being the foremost expert on alien disease's…"

"Fun" O'Neill commented, "but nice to know someone as good as you will be handling it"

"Thanks General" Fraiser replied, mildly surprised by the complement.

"So let me guess" O'Neill turned to Carter then Daniel as he commented, "you get to look at the tech to see if you can find anything Fraiser can use, and you get to look at the writing"

"Pretty much, yes" Carter replied.

"I told Hammond I wished to review Training procedures on Alpha Prime" Teal'c added.

"Yeah, you kinda got an odd look for that as well, I don't think he was fooled" Daniel commented, resettling his glasses on his nose.

"Indeed he was not, however I am here"

"So, what's the latest?" Frasier asked.


	13. Escape PT1

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

**Chapter 13: Escape Part 1 **

****

****The waiting medics set too urgently as the first of the trapped miners appeared at the top of the ventilation shaft, lifted up by the long steal cables set up by Angharad's rescue team on their way into the mine. Quickly, the survivors were grabbed; examined before being loaded into a hovering _Paladin, _ready to shift to the small planetside hospital.

All in all, of the 200 people trapped below, 10 had now been brought to safety. The medics shared uneasy looks as the ventilation fans frantically spun up to full emergency speed; things in the mine were getting bad, they need to get people out faster than this.

"Gas readings are building up far to fast for my liking, we need to get people out faster than this!" Henderson shouted, unconsciously echoing the thoughts of the medics a mile above him.

"We cant, we leave the fans off to long and the air will become saturated" Angharad replied, cursing as she carefully lifted another rock from the fall blocking access to Tarva's manhole.

"Air's becoming saturated anyway, the fans aren't keeping up, the coal seam is smouldering still, pouring carbon monoxide into the air, and somewhere there is a vent that's pouring firedamp into the mines, we need to evacuate everyone now!"

"We need the fans going to keep the air from reaching saturation otherwise we wont be able to get anyone out" Angharad replied.

"Shit! We're fighting a losing battle here"

"Tell me about it"

"O'Neill, the surface reports another ten have been safely retrieved from the mines" Teal'c spoke towards his long time friend.

"That's thirty of how many? 200? Plus the rescuers themselves? It's taking far too long" O'Neill replied, frustrated.

"Indeed, however several canisters of scrubbers were sent down whilst the fans were running, Carter believes they should buy the miners some time, but not much"

"Shit, why weren't rings set up in each of the mines?"

"I do not believe the rings would penetrate that deep underground, O'Neill"

"Well, something needs to be done, as soon as this is all over we need to have a word with the miners about safety procedures"

"Indeed"

"Angharad!" Angharad looked up as Henderson approached, "Another ten is ready and hooked up to go up in about ten, also we just got a report from Lower two, its bad, the coal seam is definitely cooking, if there was more O 2 down there it would definitely be on fire, several of the manholes were compromised, we lost at least 30 people, no way of knowing for sure just how many, we opened another manhole right next to where the fire was…" Henderson hesitated, "don't ask, just don't ever ask"

Angharad blanched, her mind rocketing to the obvious conclusion, and with a shudder she turned back to the chore of removing rocks from the fall.


	14. Escape PT2

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

Chapter 14: Escape Part 2 

"Hey, Pirate!" Felix shouted, excited by his discovery, "we got a set of rings, and they appear to be working here!"

"Nice, that will make it easier to have supplies sent down" Pirate commented, not particularly bothered.

"Yes, but there's a shaft below, well within reach of the rings"

"What, you bring the miners into here? Straight from the frying pan into a bloody biohazard?" Pirate responded, slightly angry at the suggestion.

"No, we use them as a basestation, and ring up to a ship or something, they don't need to appear here"

Pirate looked interested, "can we do that?"

"I think we would need to do some deft reprogramming on the rings but maybe"

Pirate and Felix looked at one another, and then simultaneously they shouted, "Captain _Pickstock! Get your butt over here!" _

Angharad yelped with shock, as the bright flashing light of a ring effect appeared in the dark corridor behind her, a tall dark skinned man being left behind by the lights.

"I am Teal'c, where is everyone else?"

"I am Mining Engineer Angharad Gwyn, head of the rescue effort, can we get out by those rings?"

"Most certainly, Angharad Gwyn"

"Hodges, Gwyn, Henderson, get running and round people up, get them up here fast" she turned back to Teal' c as the three left running, "Mr Teal'c, you look strong, Tarvi is trapped the other side of these rocks"

"Indeed" Teal'c commented as he moved to assist.

"Just whatever you do, don't make a spark, and consider yourself _real _lucky the rings don't usually make sparks either, or you would have brought the whole place down"

"Explosive gases?"

Angharad nodded in confirmation, "almost at critical concentrations too, before long they will reach concentrations at which they could spontaneously ignite"

Angharad's gas monitor started bleeping, she glanced quickly at it, before turning to Teal'c, "Time is seriously becoming an issue here"

Angharad breathed a sigh of relief as the corner of Tarvi's manhole finally became visible. Her aching muscles screaming that she had been shifting rocks, and reinforcing the roof for far too long. Their goal at least was in sight.

Then she let out a second sigh of relief, as several meters away, ten more figures vanished, surrounded by rings, and the bulky shape of more gas scrubbers replaced them. So far they had gone through at least ten sets of gas scrubbers, basically just containers of chemicals which soaked up carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and all the other dangerous gases which were still, despite the scrubbers and the ventilation fans, building up in the mine.

If her estimates were correct, they did not have enough time, not to get everyone who was known to be alive out.

"Teal'c, we need to speed those rings up, tell them to cut down from two minutes between rings if they can" Angharad wearily told the Jaffa.

"I will have the message passed along with the next batch to go to the surface, however according to Captain Pickstock, it is a problem with the rings which is causing the two minute time limit, it might not be possible to speed things up"

"Well, they need to try, otherwise we're dead"

With a weary sigh, Angharad rejoined the enlarged group of miners desperately trying to rescue their comrade from the manhole.


	15. Escape and Biohazards

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

Chapter 15: Escape Part 3 

****

****Teal'c frantically spun the recessed airlock on the manhole open as a bright flash behind him announced the last of the miners escaping to the surface. The air was thick, foul and smoky making it difficult to see through, and the hefty bulk of the oxygen tank on his back didn't help, but now at least there was only three people left alive, that he knew off, in this hell hole of a mine.

Finally, the door clicked, and with a heave he was able to pull it open, Angharad walking into the room before he had even finished opening the door,

"She's down, we'll need to carry her out" Angharad shouted.

Nodding he strode into the room, and grabbed both women, throwing one overreach shoulder as he raced from the room. Instinct told him it was time to leave and fast, and Angharad was no longer fit to run.

A rumble shook the mine, almost knocking Teal'c from his feet as he reached the point where the rings had been appearing for the last four hours. He stood, waiting patiently. He knew it would be another minute at least before the rings came to claim them. Another rumble shook him, and his bundle, then the air began to move, being pulled in a swift breeze from the room.

"Oh _shit!" _Angharad cursed weakly from her perch.

Teal'c looked down the shaft towards the depths of the mine, and fervently seconded that comment inwardly as a bright yellow glow appeared, swiftly expanding and racing towards their position.

Just seconds before the flames hit, the rings came to claim them, delivering them safely from the mine.

"General, we need to evacuate RSG-1 and their mining crew now"

"We cant, biohazards remember?" O'Neill replied, his tone sarcastic.

"Yes, and they are showing symptoms already, but if we don't get them out now it wont matter, the explosions below are weakening the cavern, we're talking minutes now, not weeks as we were before" Major Franco replied.

"That's the deal?"

"That's the deal" Franco confirmed.

"Shit. Okay, get them ringed straight into confinement"

"Sir…" Franco hesitated, "Fraiser's latest reports indicate whatever is down in that cavern has an airborne and rather long lasting component, she says if that cavern is going to collapse we need to… ensure the bug is destroyed, before it gets into the atmosphere"

O'Neill sat back in his chair, shocked, "she mean _nukes?" _

"Yes Sir" Fraisers voice interrupted, as the doctor strode into the room, "she means Nukes and she means it now, this microbe is not only designed to survive in the atmosphere for months, but it is already escaping into the atmosphere through the breech RSG-1 created into the cavern. We've already started to detect it in the air at the monitoring station 3 miles downwind, we need to kill it and we need to kill it now"

"How sure?"

"I would not even _think _about nukes unless I felt it was absolutely necessary General"

"Franco, get RSG-1 and their mining crew out of their, straight into containment, and issue a radiological alert"

"Yes Sir!" Franco ran, cursing from the room into the command centre, were he began rapidly barking orders, followed by General O'Neill and Doctor Fraiser.

The three, Franco, O'Neill and Fraiser walked to a small, unremarkable looking panel at the rear of the room, and turned it on, flicking buttons in sequence.

"Doctor Fraiser, Chief Medical Officer SGC, Authorising Nuclear deployment under Biohazard Containment Protocol Alpha Dash Five Five Six Gamma, Authorisation Two Sierra Sierra Twelve Eight"

O'Neill turned around as he felt the gaze of many startled officers on his back.

"General O'Neill, Commander Alpha Centauri, confirming Nuclear Deployment, Authorisation Eight Delta Lambda One Four"

"Major Franco, Commander _Ravenbright, _confirming Nuclear Deployment, Authorisation Seven Delta Omega Nine Five"

" _The cavern is starting to collapse!" _a voice in the background shouted as O'Neill typed the co-ordinates for the nuke in; grateful he didn't have to do this for ship killers. They at least were clean devices.

With a final tap, O'Neill turned from the panel and watched the main monitor, as a small patch of light erupted from the station, and sped downwards, racing rapidly towards the planets surface. It blazed a red trail of fire as its outer protective shell slowly burned away under re-entry, then the monitor flicked off, momentarily showing a bright pulse of light before the computer acted to save human eyesight.

"Shit, but there's going to be a lot of paperwork over this" O'Neill muttered.


	16. Fallout

**7: Alpha Centauri**

**Author: Chaoseternus**

Chapter 16: Fallout 

General O'Neill cursed quietly as he awaited the verdict of the Inquest into the Alpha Prime Mine Disaster he _hated _ inquests. At least most of it was over now; they were just waiting on the verdict. But whatever happened, he was in trouble. It was his turf, his responsibility, his fault.

"Sir?" the softly voiced question made O'Neill look up, to see a tall Lieutenant in an RSS uniform checking a PDA, "latest report from the monitoring teams on the edge of the exclusion zone"

O'Neill nodded his thanks as he took the PDA from the Lieutenant, checking quickly over its contents, radiation levels in the area were finally starting to stabilise at least, they would slowly drop off over, ohh... just the next thousand or so years. And so far no trace of the bacteria had been discovered, which was good, as it meant the bacteria was still within the initial blast radius, and would have been consumed by the blazing heat of the nuclear detonation. If it had been outside the initial blast radius, there was a good chance that not only would the bug have been scattered, blown all over the southern hemisphere, but that the radiation would have triggered a mutation as well. Which as Fraiser had explained to him at great length, would not be a good thing.

At least the good Doctor had been able to figure out the purpose of the engineered bacteria. It was an Asgard killer, designed specifically to target an Asgard body, multiply rapidly within, consuming the host, then spread through the atmosphere to other host bodies. Not nice, he had spent most of last night not getting sleep, or preparing for the final day of the Inquest, but getting on the horn to Thor and explaining to Thor exactly what Doctor Frasier had found.

Thor had been, to put it mildly, unhappy. He dreaded to think what would happen to any Goa'uld vessels that got in Thor's way on his route to Alpha Centauri. O'Neill sighed, so far the doc's had only managed to contain the bacteria within the bodies of the RSG team and the mining team that was infected, they were in stasis pods Thor had left behind for extreme emergencies, their testimony having been pre-recorded.

It would take Asgard technology to save them now, but it would also allow the Asgard to collect samples of the bacteria and see for themselves the evidence of Ra's work.

O'Neill looked up as he heard a faint click, and rose from his seat as the doors to the courtroom, the only one currently built in the Alpha Centauri system opened. The crowd moved, swiftly re-entering the room and filling the seats, trying hard to judge the result by the stony expressions on the faces of the Judges, Senator Pitt, General Hammond, Admiral Thompson, Narim of the Tollan, Bra'tac of the Free Jaffa, Carter / Selmac of the Tok'ra, three Tau'ri, and three off-worlders.

"The Tribunal Has come to its decision" Narim announced as speaker for the tribunal, being the only member permanently in the system, bringing quiet swiftly from the room, "On consideration of the original sensor records of the Deep Scan of the cavern and its surrounding area, we find that the sensor operator was criminally negligent in not noting the anomalies present in the scan, indeed, in discarding the anomalies as irrelevant and cleaning them from the scan"

O'Neill winched, a head on the block already, this was not an encouraging start. That sensor operator would _not _like the rest of his life, at all.

"With regards to procedures and standards at the mining complex, we find that safety procedures, training, and the manner in which they were carried out was _generally _ to the highest standards"

O'Neill nodded, the emphasis on generally told him they weren't going to get away Scot free on that point, but they were going to get off lightly.

"However, due to the patent inability to bring dedicated rescue personnel and equipment to the mines in a hurry, we rule that no mine in the Alpha Centauri system shall be allowed to operate with only one access point, we order that at least two access points, be they shafts, tunnels or other be constructed before the mine is allowed to enter service"

O'Neill shrugged that off, of the three surviving operational mines, one had two operational access points, and the other two each had a second under construction. That would not have much of an effect, except on survivability.

"We wish to commend the rescue team, in particular Angharad Gwyn, for actions above and beyond the call of duty in the cause of saving their comrades, in addition we wish to commend RSG-1 and Felix Heron's Mining team for courage beyond the call of duty for their actions to assist in the rescue of the minors despite their encroaching illness, thinking not of themselves but of others in what, I am told, is the highest traditions of the Tau'ri militaries involved"

O'Neill nodded, his face carefully blank, but inside he was agreeing fervently. Heroes, the lot of them.

"With regards to the cavern breech, we find Brigadier General O'Neill and Marine Major Franco negligent in not ordering more comprehensive checks then mere atmospheric and visual before allowing the cavern to be entered, we find that several key checks, radiation and biological for example were missed despite clear reference in the restricted procedures manual"

O'Neill sank backwards in his seat, stunned. Negligent, he had been found negligent. Well, at least no one could say the board was trying to protect because all of them, bar Senator Pitt, were friends.

"We find that the decision by Doctor Frasier to deploy nuclear weapons in order to destroy the bacteria was… regrettable, but necessary. However, we are ordering a review of procedures by which nuclear weapons can be deployed for such a purpose, no-one Doctor should be able to say if it is necessary or not"

O'Neill nodded to himself, and turned, catching Doctor Frasier doing the same thing out of the corner of his eye, she at least wasn't arguing.

"With regards to the first ruling, we order that Captain Celeste, formally chief sensor operator aboard _Prometheus _be held, pending Court Martial.

With regards to the fifth ruling, we order that both Brigadier General O'Neill and Major Franco be fined the equivalent of one years pay.

In addition, we also relieve Brigadier General O'Neill of _sole _command of the Alpha Centauri system, we order that arrangements be made post haste for a ruling council, drawn from the RSS, SGC, civilian and allied contingents to assume command of the system"

"This Inquest is adjourned"


End file.
